Fever overtake the Sun 72-68

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Fever overtake the Sun 72-68

Over ten-thousand fans packed Bankers Life Fieldhouse Thursday afternoon for kids day, and despite 14-point deficit for the Indiana Fever, all of them went home happy. Lead by Tamika Catchings 21 points and 7 rebounds the Fever (10-10) made a second-half push to overtake Connecticut (9-12) 72-68.

“At halftime we talked about finding that energy,” said Catchings after the game. “Whatever it is, you need to find it. I thought everybody came out, and the momentum came. We started building off of it, and then the bench came in and kept it going. I felt like Layshia (Clarendon) really stepped up tonight, and gave us huge minutes. I hope we can continue to keep building off of this.”

Clarendon came off the bench to finish with 12 points on the night, and all of them were needed against a Sun squad that had a few familiar faces to fans of Central Indiana basketball. Leading the Sun in points was former Fever All-Star Katie Douglas, who finished with 17 points on the night with three three-pointers as well. Also on court for Connecticut was two IHSAA basketball champions, in Ben Davis graduate Alex Bentley (9 points, 5 assists) and Heritage Christian alum Kelly Faris (4 points, 5 rebounds).

Connecticut was able to take advantage of Indiana’s slow start that came partly due to noon tip-off following a road game, and the Sun found themselves with the lead until Indiana broke the game open with a 33-point fourth quarter. The Fever took the lead off of a fast-break layup from Briann January (13 points) at the 4:47 mark, and the two teams battled back and fourth until the All-Star Catchings scored seven straight points to put the game out of reach 70-63 with :53 to go.

“They are tough,” said Fever Head Coach Lin Dunn. “I think in crunch time we got the stops we needed, we hit the shots that we needed, and we bothered them with some of those high-post sets with Catch at the top. So it’s a good win for us against the team that’s chasing the second spot.”

The Fever return to action Saturday night when they host the Atlanta Dream.